The “Buy Me” Brain

Libi Astaire

It’s not news that neuroscientists are making strides in understanding how the brain works. Less well known is that neuromarketers are hoping to use this knowledge to get consumers to buy their products. Is this a pipe dream, or the dawn of a maddeningly manipulative age?

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

What does naaseh v’nishma have to do with neuromarketing? If I’d been asked that question a few months ago, I would have said absolutely nothing. Yet there they were — the words naaseh v’nishma — staring out at me in a recent book called Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing, written by high-profile marketing and brand strategy consultantDouglasVan Praet. Now that I’ve got your attention — and, yes,Van Praet offers suggestions for how to do that — let me point out that neuromarketing isn’t about hypnotism or inserting subliminal marketing messages into a music CD or on a box of cornflakes. Nor is it about turning otherwise rational consumers into credit-card-waving zombies. Or is it?